Spring 2014 Newsletter
Published on April 16th, 2014
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Californians Debate Drought
By Leon Kolankiewicz, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
The concept behind the classic quote from English man of letters Samuel Johnson is a familiar one to anyone who ever had to cram for a final exam after a semester of goofing off, or had to pull a desperate all-nighter in a crazy, last-ditch attempt to finish a term paper on time to meet a long-known deadline after a month of procrastination. Or more somberly, to the terminally ill.
CAPS National TV Campaign
CAPS kicked off 2014 with a TV ad campaign across America leading up to the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Executive Overreach
By Joe Guzzardi, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
In January, President Obama told his Cabinet that he intends to use his pen and phone when Congress refuses to advance his agenda.
Judy Smith Joins Board
Judith F. Smith graduated from Stanford University with a BFA in Art & Architecture and founded an interior design firm with a practice in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
Chairman’s Message
Droughts come and go, and when they go we stop thinking about water shortages and our long-term water problems. But that is very shortsighted and bound to lead to crises of greater severity in the future.
Annual Report 2013 Summary
CAPS keeps overpopulation on the agendas of influential Americans. CAPS conducts extensive public education programs, works with the U.S. Congress and the California legislature, develops special projects and events, informs a growing and committed membership, and conducts original analysis and research.
California Drought Impact Extends to Air Quality
The current record drought is bringing more than water shortages and fallowing of farmland. With little rain and low winds this winter, the level of pollution shot up, accounting for 33 percent more “bad air days” versus the prior year period.
Back to the Original Earth Day Message: Talking About Overpopulation
Face painting, chanting, doing yoga and looking at the latest green gadgets all have grown to be familiar activities at Earth Day events. There’s certainly nothing wrong with those activities in and of themselves, but they are rather removed from the original reasons for creating Earth Day. So this April 22, let’s take the opportunity to recommit to talking about the core issue—overpopulation.
New Advisory Board Member Dave Foreman
CAPS welcomes a new Advisory Board member, Dave Foreman, a conservation leader and visionary who believes that only by stabilizing the human population can we stop wrecking our home—Earth.
CALIFORNIANS DEBATE DROUGHT
By Leon Kolankiewicz, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
The concept behind the classic quote from English man of letters Samuel Johnson is a familiar one to anyone who ever had to cram for a final exam after a semester of goofing off, or had to pull a desperate all-nighter in a crazy, last-ditch attempt to finish a term paper on time to meet a long-known deadline after a month of procrastination. Or more somberly, to the terminally ill.
Complacent creatures of habit, we humans much prefer “business as usual” to disruption. We hate having to face up to difficult realities that entail tough choices and unpleasant or unthinkable consequences. We’d rather be able to have our cake and eat it too, for as long as possible.
This is the situation now confronted by 38 million Californians, as one of the harshest droughts in historic memory strangles the state’s unrealistic expectations of uninterrupted growth and prosperity now and forevermore. The lackluster “rainy season,” a.k.a. California’s “winter,” is over, and while raindrops reportedly spattered the state’s dusty, thirsty soils here and there, even heavily at times, it was not nearly enough to ease the drought’s stubborn grip.
A heated Congressional hearing on the drought’s causes and consequences held recently in Fresno underscored the unfortunate tendency to look for scapegoats rather than real solutions.
Republicans decry what they like to call a “man-made drought”—while of course denying any role of man-made climate change in exacerbating its severity. They also denounce it as the “regulatory drought.” By this they mean that environmental regulations designed to protect the Sacramento Delta and its endangered fish are essentially to blame for the Central Valley’s lack of water. Rep. Devin Nunes accused San Francisco “extremists” in their comfortable homes of wanting “to use the Central Valley communities as a guinea pig to see if our lands can be restored to some mystical state of nature.”
Democrats, meanwhile, defend the Delta fish and the environment, but also defend the mass immigration that is causing virtually all of the population growth that puts ever more pressure on the natural environment and those same fish. Governor Jerry Brown personifies Democratic hypocrisy perhaps better than anyone else: “I think the drought emphasizes that we do live in an era of limits, that nature has its boundaries, and we have to be as efficient and elegant in the way we live and the way we conduct ourselves.”
Apparently Brown thinks the era of limits applies to everything but population and immigration levels. Ever pandering to the ethnic constituencies who dominate the California Democratic Party, he bends over backwards not just to accommodate but to encourage immigration en masse to California.
The duplicity on both sides of the political aisle is a sight to behold. California’s contemporary crop of political leaders has behaved contemptibly; the drought has certainly revealed this as well, like the old heaps of abandoned cars appearing on reservoir bottoms as the water recedes. Thus we have the growing phenomenon of water theft or the threat of depopulation in some areas because of farmworkers leaving the state since farms have shriveled and shrunk, or the once-unthinkable discussion of expensive, large new water storage facilities in the state, such as an “off-stream” reservoir near the Sacramento River.
Apparently things have got to get a whole lot worse before either Democratic or Republican politicians are willing to acknowledge the unthinkable: that perpetual population growth in the once-Golden State is an oxymoron.
CAPS NATIONAL TV CAMPAIGN
CAPS kicked off 2014 with a TV ad campaign across America leading up to the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The ad featured stark black and white photos of displaced American workers, as a voice asked how Dr. King “would feel about 20% of African Americans unemployed or underemployed. About giving amnesty and jobs to 11 million illegal aliens with so many Americans jobless. About admitting 30 million more immigrant workers, when 17% of Hispanic Americans are having trouble finding work. About Americans of all races not seeing a wage increase in 40 years.”
The spot ended with the question, “Was that Dr. King’s dream?”
CAPS believes that high minority unemployment and no wage increase in 40 years were certainly not part of Dr. King’s dream for Americans. We have to wonder why so many of our congressional leaders today want to admit millions more immigrant workers to take jobs and depress wages when hardworking African-American and Hispanic-American workers can’t find jobs.
EXECUTIVE OVERREACH
By Joe Guzzardi, CAPS Senior Writing Fellow
In January, President Obama told his Cabinet that he intends to use his pen and phone when Congress refuses to advance his agenda.
Americans already dismayed by Obama’s dismantling of immigration law feared his promise would mean a deeper reduction in deportations. Between now and the November mid-term elections, Congress is unlikely to pass immigration legislation, so focus has shifted to the administration’s deportation policy, already watered down to virtual nonexistence.
Since 2012, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been restrained by much stricter guidelines. ICE has been ordered to curtail the use of detainers and to not arrest broad categories of illegal immigrants (students, minor criminals, long-time residents and caregivers, among others), even though there is no statutory basis for special treatment.
Further weakening enforcement is the latest Department of Homeland Security firearms mandate with which 21,000 border patrol agents must comply. Effective March 7, agents must retreat and seek cover in face of rock-throwing border crossers and keep their weapons holstered even when encountering vehicles driven by known drug dealers or human traffickers. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mark Fisher said that since 2010, agents have been assaulted by rock 1,713 times.
Not surprisingly, immigration advocates wrote the revised regulations which, despite objections from officers on the front, Secretary Jeh Johnson implemented.
JUDY SMITH JOINS BOARD
Judith F. Smith graduated from Stanford University with a BFA in Art & Architecture and founded an interior design firm with a practice in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
Her extensive volunteer commitments have included being President of the Community Arts Music Association, the Stanford Alumni Club Santa Barbara County, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Women’s Board and the Junior League Sustainers and she is currently President of the Little Town Club. She has previously held board positions in the National Charity League, the Los Positas Park Foundation, the Music Academy of the West, and is currently a board member for Opera Santa Barbara, the Cottage Hospital Rehabilitation Foundation and active in several other nonprofit groups. Her interest in CAPS is focused on the immigration problem and its effects on our environment, education system, health issues and the way our government is run. She says, “I cannot think of a more encompassing or vital concern.”
CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE
California Drought May Be Teachable Moment
What’s California drought got to do with population? A lot.
Droughts come and go, and when they go we stop thinking about water shortages and our long-term water problems. But that is very shortsighted and bound to lead to crises of greater severity in the future.
Many of us remember the state’s drought of 1976-77, then the worst in state history—bricks in toilet tanks, “shower with a friend”—or the 1987-1992 drought, the driest six-year period in state history. But when the skies opened up, our attention moved elsewhere.
Now we are in the midst of another severe drought. The driest calendar year on record was 2013. Reservoirs are below their record lows, and farmers will not receive water allocations from the federal government. Many cities and rural areas are critically short of water. Governor Brown has declared a statewide drought emergency.
But have we learned anything from these repeated cycles? Since 1976, our population has increased more than 75 percent, from 22 million to more than 38 million. That’s 16 million more water consumers who now need to share the state’s finite water supply—and share it not just with each other, but also with the state’s farmers and the state’s fish and wildlife populations.
Water conservation by urban residents and increasing water efficiency by agriculture are essential, and they can buy valuable time, but continuing growth of the state’s population will cancel out the benefits of improved water use.
If current trends continue, California is projected to add another 13 million residents—that is to say, another 13 million water consumers— by 2050. At the same time, the Sierra snow pack is expected to decrease owing to global warming and associated climate change. Our water supply is being squeezed at both ends.
Wouldn’t it be smarter, wouldn’t our water problems be easier to manage, if we slowed our population growth all the while using water more efficiently? Wouldn’t our children, our grandchildren and the state’s natural heritage be better served if we acted with foresight?
Let’s try to make this time different and begin to control California’s relentless population growth. When this drought ends and our attention moves elsewhere, will we have learned anything?
Please help CAPS draw attention to the population part of our state’s problems while people are paying attention. It may be a teachable moment.
Dick Schneider
Member and Chairman of the Board of Directors
ANNUAL REPORT 2013 SUMMARY
“It’s really encouraging to me to know that CAPS is working hard to ensure respect for the law and economic/environmental viability, undeterred by electoral considerations or political correctness…”
– David G., San Francisco (new CAPS member in 2013)
CAPS MISSION STATEMENT
Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) works to formulate and advance policies and programs designed to stabilize the
population of California, the U.S. and the world at levels which will preserve the environment and a good quality of life for all.
100% of California’s growth is from foreign immigrants and their offspring.
– Study based on USC, Population Dynamics Research Group, Feb. 2011
CAPS keeps overpopulation on the agendas of influential Americans. CAPS conducts extensive public education programs, works with the U.S. Congress and the California legislature, develops special projects and events, informs a growing and committed membership, and conducts original analysis and research.
With members in every state, CAPS works nationally since the country has followed in the footsteps of California. We create hardhitting media campaigns to educate the media, public and policymakers about the causes, impacts, consequences and solutions to the problems caused by overpopulation. Because conventional environmental organizations have abrogated their responsibility to oppose continued U.S. population growth, ahuge gap exists that CAPS is determined to fill.
CAPS is also unique among population and immigration reduction organizations in our advocacy of less immigration and a sustainable family size. Our campaigns are part of a longterm commitment to raise public awareness of the magnitude of immigration-driven overpopulation problems. We’re in it for the long haul.
CAPS offers solutions for stabilizing our population through comprehensive immigration reduction:
• Put E-verify in place and strictly enforce it
• Enforce all current immigration laws
• Secure all ports of entry to the U.S. (borders, coastlines, airports)
• Reduce the flow of immigrant workers from 1 million per year to 300,000 a year and only bring in people with skill sets that will drive our economy and those who will not need to use our welfare and other entitlement programs
• Reduce Chain Migration to nuclear families only
• Eliminate the Diversity Visa lottery
• Require that those here illegally apply for citizenship like everyone else.
CAPS FAST FACTS/2013
• More than 12 Million Reached by CAPS’ TV & Radio Ads
• New CAPS Action Alert Members Up 500%
• CAPS Facebook Team Grew by Five-Fold
• CAPS Online Supporters Up 350%
• You stopped amnesty in 2013!
Your dollars worked harder at CAPS in 2013. Here’s why…
Overpopulation amnesty legislation seeped from every corner of our so-called representative legislatures in 2013. CAPS fought for you and your family harder than ever before, running ads where it counted, both nationally and in California.
“The last thing the American people need is more job competition and higher taxes. The last thing we need is so-called comprehensive immigration reform.”
“Why bring in more immigrant workers when more than 20 million Americans are looking for work? Why support amnesty when it will cost taxpayers $6 trillion? And bring in another 32 million people by 2036?”
Ads produced by CAPS focused on these simple truths, pressuring key legislators, including:
TARGET: Arizona Senator John McCain
RESULT: Approval rating dropping to an all-time low after the ads!
TARGET: Florida Senator Marco Rubio
RESULT: CAPS was the first to target Rubio, and in a stunning turn of events, Rubio renounced the Senate amnesty bill which he helped to write!
TARGET: California House of Rep. Whip Kevin McCarthy
RESULT: McCarthy claims ads are false! Changing stance?
TARGET: Billionaire philanthropists in the Chronicle of Philanthropy
RESULT: America’s wealthiest donors were confronted with this simple truth. “20 million Americans are unemployed. And it’s not due to lack of jobs.”
CAPS grassroots Action Alert Team members united:
• Pelting our elected officials by calling, sending free emails, mailing petitions and utilizing social media to let the voices of the American people be heard
• Staging a rally on the steps of Congress and passing out glasses asking senators to read the 24-pound, 1,100-page overpopulation amnesty bill
• Dominating Town Halls by heartily opposing amnesty and any form of population increase
• Growing CAPS new Action Alert and Social Media Team members exponentially
• Placing a large banner that stated, “HONK! America’s jobs belong to Americans,” at the I-66 pedestrian bridge on the route from Reagan International Airport to Washington, DC where President Obama’s motorcade and returning Congressmen passed on November 3. Hundreds of motorists honked in agreement.
The fight of our lives is still ahead. Our cause is outfunded ten-fold, but we have you—and the majority of the American people—with us. CAPS will do what it takes to protect the environment and your quality of life. With your generous support, our members have the tools to let their voices be heard, and CAPS will have the funds to champion the vitally important issue of aligning legislation with a sustainable population.
CAPS fights for everything you care about…
…Your family, your community, your state and your nation.
In order to preserve resources and use your donation dollars to the fullest, the Annual Report has been summarized for this newsletter.
Please contact CAPS at:
805-564-6626 or [email protected]
to receive the full Annual Report in the mail or by email.
CALIFORNIA DROUGHT IMPACT EXTENDS TO AIR QUALITY
The current record drought is bringing more than water shortages and fallowing of farmland. With little rain and low winds this winter, the level of pollution shot up, accounting for 33 percent more “bad air days” versus the prior year period.
Haze-forming soot generally increases in winter, but the record dry winter and still air exacerbated the condition. With poor air quality come health impacts. The fine particulates in air pollution can worsen asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cause other breathing problems, and have been linked to cancer and heart disease.
The state’s dominant agricultural zone, the San Joaquin Valley, had 66 days between November and February in which fine particulate matter in the air exceeded federal guidelines, while the San Francisco Bay area had 15 bad air days over the same period, the highest in seven years.
BACK TO THE ORIGINAL EARTH DAY MESSAGE: TALKING ABOUT OVERPOPULATION
Face painting, chanting, doing yoga and looking at the latest green gadgets all have grown to be familiar activities at Earth Day events.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with those activities in and of themselves, but they are rather removed from the original reasons for creating Earth Day. So this April 22, let’s take the opportunity to recommit to talking about the core issue—overpopulation.
As CAPS members and supporters, renew your commitment to being a “populationist.” Be someone who looks at the big issues—biodiversity loss, climate change, habitat destruction, resource depletion and urban sprawl—in terms of how population growth impacts them. Then, work to educate others on the population impact.
When you think about the many challenges facing the planet, do any of them not have human population growth at their core? For instance, rapid population growth imperils biodiversity and causes habitat loss. In fact, habitat loss due to population growth is the greatest threat to wildlife.
The first Earth Day was in 1970. World population then was 3.7 billion. There was a sense of urgency about where we were headed with population growth. China wasn’t able to feed its people, and several years later implemented its one child policy. The U.S. became increasingly aware of the problem of too rapid population growth through the work of Paul and Anne Ehrlich and their book, “The Population Bomb” —Paul was a popular interviewee at the time, making several appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Since the first Earth Day, world population has grown to 7 billion, and estimates indicate it’s on a path to 10 billion by 2100. The Earth Day founder, Gaylord Nelson, said, “Population growth is the No. 1 environmental problem.”
The former executive director of the Sierra Club and a former board member of CAPS, David Brower also understood the issue well. In 1966, speaking to a group of conservationists, Brower said, “We feel you don’t have a conservation policy unless you have a population policy.”
After a contentious fight that Brower lost over a 1998 Sierra Club referendum in favor of reducing immigration to stop U.S. population growth, he also said, “The leadership are fooling themselves. Overpopulation is a very serious problem, and overimmigration is a big part of it. We must address both. We can’t ignore either.”
So on Earth Day 2014, let’s recommit to getting overpopulation back into the discussion!
NEW ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER DAVE FOREMAN
CAPS welcomes a new Advisory Board member, Dave Foreman, a conservation leader and visionary who believes that only by stabilizing the human population can we stop wrecking our home—Earth.
Unlike many environmentalists, Foreman embraces immigration reduction and offers practical steps to bring our numbers down to what the Earth can support—if we have the daring, boldness, and love of life to do it.
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